Maerten van Wijk (d. 1571)

Maerten van Wijk (Wijke) (Maerten Thomassen), an Anabaptist martyr, was burned at the stake at Antwerp, Belgium, on 26 February 1571, together with Calleken Meeuwels and Jan van de Walle. Concerning this martyr van Braght's<em> Martyrs' Mirror </em>is incomplete and not quite accurate in stating that he was executed in 1570 (without exact date). The records published by Génard give a number of particulars. Maerten was a tailor, a native of Wijk bij Duurstede, Dutch province of Utrecht. He was 25 or 26 years of age; Hans Busschaert had baptized him four years previously at Antwerp one evening after dark. During his trial Maerten rejected infant baptism and refused to take an oath. He signed the trial with his name: Merten Thomassen. His marriage with Lysken had been performed in the Anabaptist congregation.

Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theatre or Martyrs' Mirror of the Defenseless Christians Who Baptized Only upon Confession of Faith and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus Their Saviour . . . to the Year A.D. 1660. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1951: 846. Available online at: http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/index.htm.